Arcade setups for those who are spacially challenged...

Let's say for some weird reason, I wanted to get into PCB'ing and all that jazz. I know very little about it, but did do some digging.

Even after I move back to the states, I do not see it as a permanent move. In fact, I doubt I'll ever live in a place where space isn't a premium. If so, is something like this a good idea?
http://www.massystems.com/SuperNova.html

I'm sure someone's father is turning in their grave... playing games on a PCB w/o standing up.... who'd have thought.

However, I'm looking at the same site's cabinet list.
http://www.massystems.com/ArcadeSys.html
$1000? You can get Astro City cabinets for a few hundred bucks here. Maybe I'm missing something. Will the US-made cabinets do you sexual favors?

Anyways, feel free to pelt me with facts on the subject. I am your slab!

 

I've been kindof eyeing the "Arcade games at home" deal for a few years now, and as far as I know, that's your standard Supergun (or Supernova as that site calls it) setup, which is pretty much the standard if you're not able to wrangle a cabinet. The upsides is that they'll work with RGB monitors and (check the specs, some don't) even your TV. The only thing I've heard bad about them is that some of them can be a bit of a pain as far as supporting the PCB correctly (i.e. physically giving it a place to sit) but your mileage may vary according to the unit. All told, if you can't or don't want to go with a cabinet, snag one of these or a similar model. Or if you're really inclined and good with a soldering iron (let's just say that if I were a surgeon with these hands, I'd be standing trial for several accidental murders :smt011 ) there seems to be a decent amount of info on the internet about building your own setup - I can scrounge for links if you're interested.

 

Here's a much smaller unit, that I was recommended to buy.
http://www.uberia.co.uk/

 

That's good cracker -- thanks for the links!

It's really more about space that my wife would rather use for absolutely nothing compared to a massive cabinet that only a geek would enjoy. I've finally upgraded (or I should say my job upgraded me) to a very spacious apartment... but I don't think a game room would be appropriate. I've got enough consoles I'd say.

Anyways, what do these super guns limit me too? Something tells me that a board for say.... Hikaru... is just not going to fly. And they don't seem to have enough space for a Naomi GD-Rom either if I wanted to go that route one day.

I guess I'm mainly interested in some early 90's stuff that should work (a lot of the unreleased shooters) but there's some other yet-to-be-emulated games I wouldn't mind shelling out for. Planet Harriers comes to mind, as it looks like it'll never get a conversion, and I can't find it anywhere in Tokyo to play it.

 

The above quote was taken from http://www.massystems.com/ArcadeSys.html

Those cabinets look bloody awful. Why pay for them oversized boxes when you could have a sleek Astro City cabinet for 1/4 of the price.

Yakumo

 

Dont know much about this but the way ive seen/heard is that they dont limit you to anything. They will play anything jamma and then some more. Say you want a naomi gd-rom WHAT you do is you buy a naomi board e.g the actual naomi and then a jamma converter. Then you run the naomi into the supergun and that just displays it on to the tv...

 

No joke. I've found another reason not to move. You can get Astro City's for like 15,000 yen on Yahoo Japan. Shipping them even by boat would be too ridiculously expensive, but c'mon man -- $1000 USD for a crappy looking stand up? No thanks.

 

I thought you were gonna leave Japan in a few months? :smt017

Anyway, building a Supergun yourself doesnt seem all that difficult. If you have a SCART TV (or some comparable RGB connection to your TV), they can be wired directly to your TV! (well... not the high-res boards but the old stuff you speak about probably use low-res).

Here's some links that were useful to me:
http://chadsarcade.co.uk/oldsite/Supergun/supergunIndex.htm
http://www.therealbobroberts.com/ (got a nice prewired JAMMA connector in the bargain section)
http://cps2shock.retrogames.com/jamma.html

 

While you're still in Japan get a nice Japanese Supergun off YJ, they look better and actually have features unlike the Supernova or Uberia guns. I recommend the now defunct Sigma brand. Sigma stuff is top notch, they were mass produced and of course are NTSC friendly since they're made in Japan. There are lots of models available, many of them are already ready for Neo Geo MVS and "Jamma+" kickharnesses, heres some up right now:


http://page8.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/h12779697
DD they built their own mahjong controller

http://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/68144176
Some really small generic Japanese supergun

..I'd find more but I'm late for class...


Check out www.sgrepository.com. Lat0rz

 

I really don't know why people want to pay so much for a ready made SG when there's nothing to them!

 

Go on make me a cheap good looking one then... Dont sit around writing a reply just get to work! :axe:

:smt043

 

Theres nothing to making rudimentary Superguns but thats the thing, older Japanese/HK Superguns are so much more complicated then the crap out right now. For many of you Europeans, you can just tap/wire directly from/to the JAMMA connector, everyone else can't. You guys really shouldn't even need a SG at all. The Japanese ones are expensive (if you call ~$100 expensive) because they are old, collectable, and are quality made with full control over every aspect of your video output, controller output etc. I like having the option of finely tune my video and adjusting the screen offset to make the most of games. Your "nothing to it" SG can't do that.

 

Japanese have RGB televisions too... they have a connector similar to SCART. The only difference from a Euro SG for US/Japan is that it needs a video converter... e.g. RGB to S-Video.

You can build it how you like, to look how you want. You can use whatever kind of pad you want, or make one. At its most simple, a SuperGun is just a JAMMA edge connector wired to a SCART socket, PSU and joystick ports. Yes, I know that for an ideal one, that's over simplifying things... but in its most basic form, that's it.

A JAMMA board is a ready to go board, that just requires power. It outputs RGB and sound. To control it, it requires a series of buttons to be connected to it.

 

Just a few notes on some things - What Paulo said about a NAOMI GD-ROM is right, you have to have the base NAOMI system first. However, the NAOMI is already Jamma compatable, so you won't need a convertor to plug it into your supergun. If you're looking at older games, e.g. PacMan or Centipede, they were originally manufactured before the Jamma standard came about. I think you can get Jamma adaptors for these though, and if I recall right there were Jamma compatable versions released by either the official companies later on, or as hacked/pirated versions.

GP, as far as the board sizes you're limited to, pretty much anything works. The boards don't fit inside that little central box where the joysticks connect, that just holds the power supply and such. The boards plug into a cable, or sometimes just a slot on the back, which is why I mentioned that some superguns can be worse than others, as they have their board slot elevated off of the ground, leaving you to find some way to prop it up as to not strain or break the board. Depending on the size of the board, this can make superguns fairly large in terms of a footprint they set, as you have the control box and then the board. And needless to say, the boards aren't really protected from the elements (dust, pets, and children), so you'll have to take that into consideration. I'm not trying to discourage you, but they are sadly a little more high-maintenence than your average cart or disc based game.

 

*cough* MAME *cough*

then you can just keep your boards in boxes

 

Well, that IS an option, however, I'm a bit of a MAME whore as my locale here doesn't have much of an arcade scene, and in my opinion, it's just not the same at all. I'd take a cobbled-together supergun on my tiny TV over MAME any day.

 

I am. I moved in about 2 months before the move decision was made. Makes the move all that more painful.

While I do like DIY sometimes, I just don't have the time to invest in this really. I'm not much of a crafty-man (I have no tools) and I'm one of those "time is money" guys. $300 for the hours it would take me to build (and maybe break) seems to be a fair price.

Yeah, I play MAME, but that just isn't the same. Also, there's a lot of poorly emulated titles, and as before, there's always the newer stuff (Hikaru, Naomi) that's not emulated at all.

 

2 things:

10 years ago, a small demographic of Japanese had RGB TVs, now the 21-pin standard is defunct in Japan. Few if ANY new Japanese Tvs have it without paying a fortune. Right now Japan has really taken to the D-terminal (component) video as most new consoles/dvd players etc are better with component than RGB since they contain native component video. Only a few brand new high-end plasma type TVs accept 15khz RGB at all. This is why the X-RGB upscan converter dealies are popular.

About Naomi hardware, I don't believe all games support "standard" video output. I believe some (or all) output 33khz naturally. Thus superguns etc wont work with them. Anyone wanna check this?

 

I have a Plasma TV. It's got D-video and Component in, but no RGB. I seriously doubt most of them have it to be honest.

Video out on Naomi:
Naomi outputs in some weird resolution. I can't remember off the top of my had, but it's lower than 640x480 -- like 572x411 or some goofy number like that. I wanted to make some videos of VF4 fights a while back, and you have to buy a step-down converter for it to work on something like a tv.

They *DO* however, work without a hitch straight to a VGA monitor, which is something to consider. This is Naomi 2 anyway... I can't imagine Naomi 1 being much different (but I guess it could)

 

Course mame can be very similar... you put it through your arcade cab!

And hey, how is plugging your board into a TV the same as standing at a cab anyway? How is using some joystick the same as a REAL control panel? Even if it IS made from REAL arcade parts.